Patriots are headed for postseason

North Middlesex junior forward Donnie Frederick scores against Westboro in an early season game at NorthStar Arena. (Sentinel & Enterprise/Ed Niser)

FITCHBURG -- The North Middlesex Regional ice hockey team has been waiting to clinch a district berth.

The Pats have been struggling lately, however, losing two straight and three out of their last four games.

But North Middlesex put together a gritty performance -- just like Leominster -- and was able to secure those magical two points to officially punch a playoff ticket after a 3-2 Roy Conference victory over the Blue Devils Wednesday evening at Fitchburg State University's Wallace Civic Center.

"We have a lot of kids with experience in making the tournament, and they know how big that is and how much it means to us and what it means to the seniors to be able to play more games," North Middlesex senior defenseman TJ Melanson said. "That's a big, emotional boost to us. We've struggled the past few games. Points are tough to come by now, so to get these two points with five games left is really good. Hopefully we can get a run going heading into the playoffs."

North Middlesex improved to 10-5 overall and 4-3 in the conference.

"At the beginning of the year your goal is to make the tourney, first and foremost," NM coach Mike McCarthy said. "You can't make noise if you can't get there."

Leominster, which entered with two straight victories, fell to 4-11-2, 1-6-1.

"I think this was one of our best efforts, if not our best effort of the year," Leominster coach Casey Beaulac said. "It was a pretty solid team effort; I was happy with it.

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I think we deserved a better outcome, but that's the way hockey is sometimes."

Leominster held a 33-17 shots-on-net advantage, but couldn't solve NM goalie Joe Sheridan in the third period.

"It means that we had a lot of play in their zone and getting the puck to the net a lot," Beaulac said. "I'm happy with that stat, but I'm not happy with the scoreboard stat."

In the third period, Sheridan stopped all 13 Blue Devils shots, including strong bids by Cam Moran, KJ Dowling and Jared Schofield.

"Joey has had a big year this year," Melanson said. "He's really stepped up. He gives you that security because you know he's going to make that next save."

McCarthy praised the play of Leominster, in particular the all-senior first line of Dowling (goal, assist), Brandon Lefebvre (two assists) and Moran (goal, assist).

"I know their coaches and their bench aren't happy with the result, but looking at it from my bench, you can certainly be happy with the attitude and the effort of his kids with the effort they brought to the rink tonight," said McCarthy, who made sure to find the trio of Blue Devil scorers after the game to praise their effort and relentless play.

The Patriots struck for the 3-2 advantage by potting the lone goal in the second period.

On North Middlesex's first power play of the night, hard work by Donnie Frederick set up the go-ahead goal by Matt McCarthy at 10:45. Frederick dug the puck out from the boards and slid a perfect pass to McCarthy, who skated through slot and lit the lamp.

Earlier in the period, it was great defensive work by senior defenseman Melanson, who made the play of the game via a dive to clear the puck away from danger as it was trickling toward the goal-line.

"Joey was stuck on the near-side post, so I cut across -- it was probably like five inches from the goal-line -- and I was able to dive across," Melanson said. "(The Leominster forward) didn't have a good enough angle to get the puck in."

Melanson's instincts as a defenseman took over when he noticed his goalie might be in trouble.

"The first thought was getting to the front of the net, and if Joey can't get across there you have to do whatever you can to stop the puck from going into the net," he explained.

Four minutes later, Brendan Barry banged away down low for a rebound, but Leominster netminder Brett Jeffrey (14 saves) -- a freshman -- delivered the big save at the six-minute mark of the middle period.

It was non-stop action in a first period, which featured a combined 19 shots and four goals in a 2-2 stalemate.

North Middlesex struck first only 4:37 in, as Joe O'Neill found the back of the net, assisted by Matt DeVito and Cam Stairs.

Leominster countered only 23 seconds later, however. White-hot forward Dowling was camped out on the post and did the honors, taking a feed from Lefebvre and rifling a one-timer past Sheridan for the equalizer.

But the back and forth first period continued, and the Patriots regained a one-goal lead at 7:08 on Barry's deadly wrist shot. Mike Corrado's pretty touch pass set up Barry's tally.

Late in the period, the Blue Devils got back to even again. On a 2-on-1 rush, Moran elected to take a shot from the left wing and uncorked a pinpoint laser into the top corner of the net to tie the game at 2-2. Dowling and Lefebvre assisted on the tying goal.

Early in period, Leominster nearly got on the scoreboard, but Schofield's blast from the blue line hit the post.

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